Bartolomé de Las Casas

Bartolomé de Las Casas was a Spanish priest who lived and worked in the New World in the early 1500s. For much of his life, Las Casas argued against the poor treatment of American Indians by the Spanish colonists.

Las Casas was born in about August 1474 in Spain. During 1493–96, his father traveled with Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the New World. In 1502 Las Casas himself set out for the Americas. He traveled to the island of Hispaniola (now divided between Haiti and the Dominican Republic) in the Caribbean Sea.

After conquering the Indians, the Spanish had enslaved them. Many Indians were forced to work in mines and on farms, and they often were treated terribly. Las Casas became a priest and soon began teaching Christianity to the Indians.

By that time, Las Casas had realized that it was wrong of the Spanish to force the Indians to work. He decided to reform the system. One of his ideas was to have free Indians and Spanish farmers work together on the land. In 1519 he presented his plan to the Spanish Parliament and King Charles I. The king permitted Las Casas to try out his ideas in a new colony. Both the Spanish settlers and the Indians resisted the plan, however. By 1522 the experiment had failed.

Disappointed, Las Casas gave up his reform work. Nevertheless, he continued to speak out in defense of American Indians. He wrote many letters and books on the subject, including History of the Indies. In 1547 he returned to Spain, where he advised the king on issues related to the New World. He died on July 17, 1566, in Madrid.

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